Directed energy weapons such as high energy laser and high power radio frequency threats are under rapid development. These types of weapons destroy sensors and electronics systems and in some cases can result in damage to the platform itself. In response, threat detection, mitigation and protection technologies need to be developed to protect military assets from their deployment. Current methods of mitigation include sending jets of water or clouds of smoke into the path to diffuse the energy and reduce the threat to the asset. These methods require a significant amount of time to deploy and do nothing to negate the ability of the weapon's future use. Described herein is a technique to deflect and/or reflect a high energy laser or radio frequency wave using a plasma-based free-space structure. The plasma is created via a laser source to enable a fast deployable defense system.